


Unintentional

by Severina



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Community: tamingthemuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-29
Updated: 2012-07-29
Packaged: 2017-11-10 23:28:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/471920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shane might be a lot of things, but he's not an idiot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unintentional

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's tamingthemuse community, for the prompt "subterfuge"  
> A sort-of gapfiller for Ep. 102.
> 
> * * *

Shane might be a lot of things, but he's not an idiot.

He might not know what all the numbers and blips on the machinery hooked up to Rick actually mean, but he knows that just 'cause the power goes out it don't mean his best friend went out with them. But he puts his hand on Rick's chest and feels no respiration. He does his best to control his breathing, replaces his hand with his ear and tries to still the rapid-fire beating of his own heart. Still nothing.

There is machine-gun fire in the hall, the rush of running feet, an explosion in the distance.

He can't think.

He gets Lori, gets Carl, puts them in his car and gets them out. First toward Atlanta, then to the quarry where he and Janine used to go camping, back before things went to shit between them. He sets up the camp, makes the rules, gets everybody in line. He makes sure they have food, fresh water, clean clothes. He lets Carl take a turn on the CB, slings an arm around his shoulder and praises him and sees the kid smile for the first time in days. He comforts Lori when she cries, cards her fingers through her long hair and lets her lean on him. 

He takes that on. Him.

Lori stiffens in his arms the first time he tries to kiss her. He backs off, 'cause he ain't ever gonna be the kind to force a woman, but soon enough she's looking at him the same way he's looking at her, the way he's looked at her since Rick brought her home from college one Christmas vacation and introduced her as his fiancée. Soon enough they are stealing kisses behind the RV, Lori enlisting Dale to keep an eye on Carl so they can meet somewhere privately. Soon enough she is writhing underneath him and he is sucking bruises onto her pale shoulder blade, the curve of her hip, the soft silken skin of her inner thigh.

If he feels a little twinge of guilt, he buries it deep.

He didn't want it like this. This wasn't his plan. He had no choice. Rick was dead, and there was nothing he could do for him. Nothing but save his wife, his child. Protect them. Keep them safe.

Rick was dead. 

Lori pillows her head on his shoulder, a brief respite before they have to put their clothes in order and make their separate ways back to camp. The chain with Rick's wedding ring is still lying in the grass a few feet away, briefly forgotten by Lori now, in the aftermath. But Shane's eyes are drawn to the glint of the metal, and he can't help thinking of that last final moment, Rick pale and gaunt against the thin hospital sheets, the sound of gunfire and the moans of the walkers drifting from the hallway. Pressing his ear to Rick's chest. Hearing nothing. Realizing that Rick wasn't breathing.

But if Rick wasn't breathing, why did he bother to block the doorway to Rick's room with the gurney? The walkers only go after live meat. Why did he protect a goddamned corpse?

Shane doesn't realize he is scowling until Lori reaches up to trace a finger over his brow, smooth away the lines. "Deep thoughts?" she murmurs.

He catches her fingers in his hand, brushes away the errant thoughts as easily as he brushes his lips against her fingertips. "Just thinkin' we ought to get back," he answers. 

She sighs and sits up, and he has to steal another kiss before she reaches behind her and places the chain around her neck. He knows that there will come a time when she will let that go, too.

Rick is dead. And Lori belongs to him, now.


End file.
